Historic California Gold Rush sunken treasure recovered from the 1857 wreck of the fabled “Ship of Gold” will be displayed in Tennessee for the first time during the International Money Expo in Nashville, September 4-6, 2025. The golden artifacts will be publicly exhibited during the show in Hall A of the Music City Convention Center, 201 Rep. John Lewis Way South.

The multi-million-dollar educational exhibit will include large gold bars each weighing five pounds or more and made by San Francisco assayers from miners’ gold nuggets, 1857-era mint condition U.S. gold coins, and other recovered Gold Rush-era artifacts, including an exquisite, hand-engraved gold pocket watch cover depicting a ‘49er miner. The valuable, vintage items were salvaged from the legendary S.S. Central America, which lay submerged more than 7,000 feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean for over a century.

Scientist Bob Evans, co-discoverer of the sunken treasure, will meet with visitors daily at the booth (#401) of Finest Known. He will present an educational seminar describing how the sunken extraordinary treasure was excitingly found and carefully recovered from 1.3 miles below the ocean’s surface.

Evans describes the gold and other retrieved artifact treasures as “a remarkable time capsule of 1857, representing a specific, important moment in United States and world history.”  

Adam Crum, president of Finest Known and the author of several books about the Central America treasures, explained: “Nicknamed the ‘Ship of Gold,’ the Central America was the Titanic of her day, a legendary 280-foot-long, three-masted side-wheel steamship that carried passengers and tons of California Gold Rush cargo between Panama and New York City. She sank in a hurricane about 150 miles off the coast of North Carolina on September 12, 1857. The tragedy took the lives of 420 of the ship’s 578 passengers and crew members, and the loss of the gold cargo was a major factor in the economically devastating financial panic of 1857 in the United States.”

 The show will be open to the public on Thursday, September 4, from Noon to 5:30 pm; Friday, September 5, from 10 am to 5:30 pm; and Saturday, September 6, from 10 am to 3:30 pm. Adult admission is $10 per day or $25 for a three-day pass, and children 15 and under are admitted free with a paid adult.

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